What is the ruling on delaying the prayer, such as the Zuhr prayer, because of a lecture or class time in a school, from another congregation in the same mosque?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : What is the ruling on delaying the prayer, such as the Zuhr prayer, because of a lecture or class in a school, for example, from another congregation in the same mosque?
The Shaykh : Is the mosque a general public mosque, not specific to the school?
The questioner : It is specific to the school, and all obligatory prayers are performed in it.
The Shaykh : But it is not an absolute mosque; rather, it is a school mosque. So, after this clarification, you mean a prayer hall, not a mosque, because a mosque has specific rulings, one of which is that it should not be converted into a hall, a classroom, or demolished to build something else. If it is a school mosque, it is a prayer hall, and in that case, the rulings of mosques do not apply to prayer halls, whether they are in schools, hospitals, companies, or other places. The rulings that apply to mosques do not apply to them. For example, if a person enters this prayer hall, he is not obligated to pray two rak'ahs before sitting, unlike in public mosques. Also, regarding what you were asking about, it is prescribed to have multiple congregations in this prayer hall, as long as it is not a regular public mosque with a regular imam, a regular mu'adhdhin, and attendance from passersby, neighbors, and the like. So, as I said first, no ruling of the mosques applies to it, including the dislike of repeating congregations in mosques. This dislike does not apply here. However, two things can be said on this occasion:
The first thing is that it should be the case that the curricula of all schools are one hundred percent Islamic. This includes training students to leave the classroom and the school to the nearest mosque to them, where they pray with the Muslim congregation, and not separating from them by praying the congregation in their prayer hall. This is the first point. And without a doubt, achieving such a matter in these times, which are controlled by rulings that are not based on the Book of Allah and the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah, is not easy. Until this matter is achieved, perhaps it will be soon. At the very least, the school principal should be a guide and organizer for increasing the single congregation and reducing the multiple congregations. The answer is clear: meaning, if the number of students is, for example, one thousand, the curriculum should be based on gathering all of them at one time to pray behind one imam. If this is difficult, it can be said, as it is said, "O my Lord, some evil is less than some". So, instead of having ten congregations, or five, or four, let them have two congregations. The important thing is to establish a curriculum to reduce these congregations about which the question was asked. Even though the answer is that it is permissible, as long as this multiplicity is not in the public mosque but in the prayer hall, nevertheless, the person in charge of such a school should be keen to gather the students behind one imam, because it is established in the Shari'ah that the virtue of the congregation increases in virtue as the number of worshippers increases, and vice versa, as indicated by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him)Sunan an-Nasa'i 843Hasan (Darussalam) And so, the more the number, the better the congregation.
The Shaykh : Is the mosque a general public mosque, not specific to the school?
The questioner : It is specific to the school, and all obligatory prayers are performed in it.
The Shaykh : But it is not an absolute mosque; rather, it is a school mosque. So, after this clarification, you mean a prayer hall, not a mosque, because a mosque has specific rulings, one of which is that it should not be converted into a hall, a classroom, or demolished to build something else. If it is a school mosque, it is a prayer hall, and in that case, the rulings of mosques do not apply to prayer halls, whether they are in schools, hospitals, companies, or other places. The rulings that apply to mosques do not apply to them. For example, if a person enters this prayer hall, he is not obligated to pray two rak'ahs before sitting, unlike in public mosques. Also, regarding what you were asking about, it is prescribed to have multiple congregations in this prayer hall, as long as it is not a regular public mosque with a regular imam, a regular mu'adhdhin, and attendance from passersby, neighbors, and the like. So, as I said first, no ruling of the mosques applies to it, including the dislike of repeating congregations in mosques. This dislike does not apply here. However, two things can be said on this occasion:
The first thing is that it should be the case that the curricula of all schools are one hundred percent Islamic. This includes training students to leave the classroom and the school to the nearest mosque to them, where they pray with the Muslim congregation, and not separating from them by praying the congregation in their prayer hall. This is the first point. And without a doubt, achieving such a matter in these times, which are controlled by rulings that are not based on the Book of Allah and the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah, is not easy. Until this matter is achieved, perhaps it will be soon. At the very least, the school principal should be a guide and organizer for increasing the single congregation and reducing the multiple congregations. The answer is clear: meaning, if the number of students is, for example, one thousand, the curriculum should be based on gathering all of them at one time to pray behind one imam. If this is difficult, it can be said, as it is said, "O my Lord, some evil is less than some". So, instead of having ten congregations, or five, or four, let them have two congregations. The important thing is to establish a curriculum to reduce these congregations about which the question was asked. Even though the answer is that it is permissible, as long as this multiplicity is not in the public mosque but in the prayer hall, nevertheless, the person in charge of such a school should be keen to gather the students behind one imam, because it is established in the Shari'ah that the virtue of the congregation increases in virtue as the number of worshippers increases, and vice versa, as indicated by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him)